Legendary movie cinematographer Gordon Willis dies at 82

FALMOUTH — Gordon Willis may have retired from Hollywood, but the legendary cinematographer hadn't stopped offering his advice and wisdom to up-and-coming filmmakers.

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By Sean F. Driscoll

capecodtimes.com

By Sean F. Driscoll

Posted May. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Sean F. Driscoll
Posted May. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM

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FALMOUTH — Gordon Willis may have retired from Hollywood, but the legendary cinematographer hadn't stopped offering his advice and wisdom to up-and-coming filmmakers.

Willis, who died in North Falmouth on Sunday at age 82, spoke to the Woods Hole Film Festival several times, including a 2003 master class he taught at the festival. The class included a screening of the Woody Allen-directed "Manhattan," on which Willis served as director of photography.

"He was just so generous of his spirit and time," said Judy Laster, the film festival's director. "He had no intrinsic reason to be nice to the Woods Hole Film Festival. We're not Hollywood. But he loved teaching people and loved working with people interested in the craft."

Laster said she had no secret formula for getting hold of the man who made "The Godfather," "Annie Hall" and "All the President's Men" leap off the screen. She tracked him down and got him on the phone; he was more than happy to oblige.

"We developed a really close friendship. I'm just so sad right now," she said Monday, fighting back tears.

Details of Willis' death were not available Monday. Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home in Falmouth is handling the arrangements; a graveside service is planned for 1 p.m. Friday at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, according to the funeral home's website.

Through much of the 1970s, Willis was the cameraman whom some of Hollywood's top directors relied on during one of filmmaking's greatest eras. Francis Ford Coppola used him for the first two "Godfather" movies, Woody Allen for "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" and Alan J. Pakula for "Klute" and "All the President's Men."

Eric Hart, manager of Cape Cinema in Dennis, said Willis helped bring the tone and technique of European filmmakers to Hollywood and made the way a film looks as important as what was transpiring on the screen.

"He's one of the people who heavily influenced how movies look," he said. "A lot of directors wanted that type of work."

During a remarkable run from 1971 to 1977, films Willis worked on won 19 Oscars and were nominated 39 times, from best picture for "The Godfather" and "Annie Hall" to acting for Jane Fonda in "Klute" and John Houseman in "The Paper Chase." Yet Willis never won a competitive Oscar and was nominated just twice, for Allen's "Zelig" and for Coppola's "The Godfather, Part III," which came out in 1990.

The academy presented him an honorary award in 2009, noting "his willingness to fly in the face of convention."

A native of New York City, Willis was the son of a Warner Bros. makeup man. By his late teens his passion was photography. He spent his 20s on fashion shoots in Greenwich Village and served in the Air Force during the Korean War, making training films. He and his wife, Helen, married in 1955. They had three children.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Follow Sean F. Driscoll on Twitter: @seanfdriscoll.